


The Way Things Are

by rosesandstuff



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: (only slightly and verbally), Canon Universe, Fluff, Gen, tw: Cussing/Cursing, tw: fighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 15:45:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesandstuff/pseuds/rosesandstuff
Summary: Maka is assigned to tutor the one and only Death the Kid due to his failing grades. Turns out the problem doesn’t lie with intelligence but within his obsession for perfection. (anime; post-finale)





	The Way Things Are

Maka rested her forehead against Soul’s door, taking a deep breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. In all honesty she’d rather be in bed right now resting her eyes or doing something to try and rid herself of the pounding headache she had… but she had to do this before it was too late. She raised her hand curled in a fist to knock on the door, but wasn’t able to as Soul opened it and she fell right into him. 

“Maka!” he cried, pushing her off of him and she grumbled something, head throbbing too much to push him back. “What’re you doing leaning on my door like that?”

“I have a headache, Soul. Be a little bit more quiet,” she hissed. Soul frowned but nodded.

“Okay. Is that what you came here to tell me. You have a headache?” 

“No, it’s not that,” Maka said softly, taking one of his hands and linking his fingers between her own silently. “I... I just wanted to give you a heads-up.”

“About what?” Soul raised an eyebrow.

“Kid is coming over soon,” Maka explained slowly. “Lord Death wants me to tutor him.” 

Damn, those words sounded weird coming out of her mouth. Maka prided herself in being a star student, of course, even if she did break the rules sometimes—but it was always for the greater good. Still, the last person she’d expect Lord Death to have her tutor was his own son.

“Really?” Even Soul sounded incredulous. “Why?”

“I don’t know!” Maka said, rubbing at her temple a bit. “All Lord Death told me was that he needed me to give Kid a lesson or two since I’m at the top of our class. It’s so confusing and all this stress is giving me a headache.”

“Well... okay,” Soul huffed. “Why don’t I go get you an aspirin from the kitchen and you go get have a quick nap? When’s the guy supposed to get here anyway?”

“In ten minutes,” Maka groaned. “And you know Kid, he’s never a minute late.”

Soul looked over at the clock on his nightstand, reading it curiously. “It’s going to be 8:08 in ten minutes.”

“Exactly, because the numbers zero and eight are ‘perfectly symmetrical,’” Maka said, putting air-quotes around the last couple of words with a light smirk. Soul rolled his eyes and kissed her forehead.

“Alright. I’ll go get you that aspirin and you go get whatever you need to study with, okay?” Soul said, and Maka nodded, watching as her boyfriend left down the hall with a sigh. 

She went back to her room, grabbing a few textbooks and other supplies. It wasn’t just the oddness of the whole situation that was getting to her nerves, it was also the fact that she was getting involved with Kid’s education. Not only was he her friend but he was Lord Death’s son. If she didn’t do well with him then she’d be both a disappointment to the school and to Kid. And really, what could she teach him that he didn’t already know?

 

Maka shook her head free of thoughts about how absurd this all was and grabbed some pencils before heading out to the living room of her and Soul’s shared apartment. Soul nodded to her when she came into his view and handed her the aspirin and water. She swallowed it then checked the watch suddenly wrapped too tightly against her wrist. 

“Well, it’s 8:06 now. He should be here soon,” Maka informed her boyfriend who ran a careful hand through his large, white hair. 

“Okay. I’m going to head back to my room then. Good luck,” Soul said, kissing her lightly on the cheek. Maka sighed a bit through her nose and muttered some acknowledgment to him. He smirked as he began walking away and added, “Don’t forget, you defeated the Kishin with your bravery alone. You can handle Kid. And if you really need me just holler.” Maka let a small smile grow on her face and she nodded. 

It faded as soon as Soul left and then she heard the telltale dignified knocking at the front door. With a deep breath, she got up from her place on the couch to answer it. 

The door opened to reveal Kid in his casual white-button down, a polite grin on his face that Maka returned hesitantly. ‘Get it together,’ she told herself inside her head. ‘It’s just Kid. Your friend. Just because you’re tutoring him now doesn’t change that he’s your friend. Friend, friend, friend.’

“Greetings, Maka,” Kid said whilst Maka opened the door wider and motioned for him to come in. 

“Hey, Kid.” Kid had been at their apartment plenty of times before, Maka reminded herself. There was nothing to worry about.

“How have you and Soul been doing?” Kid asked as the two sat on the couch. Maka pretended to busy herself by looking through one of the books on the coffee table for the content they were going to study. 

“Pretty good.” Out of all of their friend group, Kid was the most formal aside from herself and Tsubaki, which was comforting to say the least. Maka couldn’t even imagine herself trying to tutor Black Star. Then again, Black Star wasn’t Lord Death’s son, so there wouldn’t be all that added stress that is currently making her hands shake. 

‘This isn’t like you, Maka. Come on! You’re almost a two-star meister! You can tutor a friend!’ she thought. ‘Yeah, a friend that’s the literal son of Death,’ another voice in her head piped in. She tried to ignore it as she continued, “Soul’s here but he’s in his room so he won’t be bothering us.”

“And Blair?” Kid seemed almost afraid as he asked that question. Maka snickered a little. It was good to know she wasn’t the only nervous one there. Poor guy has probably been traumatized by Blair’s many inconvenient pop-ins since he started visiting Soul and Maka.

“Don’t worry, Blair’s been on a vacation outside of Death City for a week now,” Maka assured him. “She won’t be back anytime soon.”

“Good,” Kid breathed, relieved as he relaxed a bit. “Now, what will we be studying?”

Maka opened her mouth to ask what he thought he needed help on, but stopped. What was she doing? Was she seriously trying to ask Death the freaking Kid what part of school he needed help with? 

“Alright, let’s skip the bullshit, Kid,” Maka said, and her friend nearly jumped at her stern tone. She rarely swore unless she was angered, and by the surprised expression Kid wore he had noticed this. “What are you doing here?” she quickly elaborated. “You’re Lord Death’s son. You shouldn’t have to be… tutored.”

Kid even cringed a bit at the word. “I… I’m not too entirely sure myself.”

“I know you, Kid,” Maka said, “you’re really smart and you’re a talented meister. So why-?” She trailed off as she could only find herself staring at Kid quizzically who stared back with an almost shameful expression.

“I suppose it may be an issue with my… performance regarding schoolwork,” he said slowly. 

“Performance?”

“Yes, er-“ Kid fiddled with his hands as he tried to find the right words to say. “You see, your kind words are true; I am a fairly intelligent and skilled meister, but-“

“But?” Maka asked, impatient. She crossed her arms in a no-nonsense manner.

“Do you remember the exam?” Kid asked.

“Of course,” Maka answered. She had gotten the top score on that exam. 

“I may or may not have scored at the bottom of our class.”

“What? How?” Maka squeaked. She had never cared to check her friends’ scores. She had honestly been to excited about her 100% and never bothered to learn the others’ results (besides Black Star, who had no doubt been disqualified after cheating.) 

“I never answered any of the questions!” Kid cried, eyes twitching slightly and Maka quickly recognized what was happening. He was having another meltdown. “I couldn’t get my damn name right! And then I tore the paper! The paper, Maka! It was perfectly fine piece of paper and now it’s ruined! Ruined!”

Maka frowned and shook her head. “Kid, it’s just a piece of paper. When you were done with it they were going to shred it anyways. And what do you mean ‘get your name right?’” His name was Death the Kid. Sure, it was long but it was plenty simple. Nothing to take over an hour to write.

“I got all the way to the ‘K’ and I couldn’t write it right!” Kid howled. “I ruined it! I’m a monster! Hopeless, horrible imperfect trash-!”

“Okay, okay,” Maka intervened his rant to pat his back. She suddenly wished Kid would have brought his girlfriends, Patty and Liz, with him. They always had a knack for calming him down, somehow. 

“You’re not trash, Kid. It’s just a ‘K.’ Is this really all because of your handwriting?” Maka asked. She looked over to the books on the table in front of her, suddenly seeming pretty useless. To think she was nervous she was going to be a bad tutor just a few moments ago. That seemed pretty silly now as she proceeded to pat Kid’s back. 

“What do you mean ‘just?’” Kid hissed. “I can never write the ‘K’ right no matter what I do!”

“Are you serious? You’ve never got past writing your name on assignments?” Maka wrinkled her brows.

“No!” Kid yelled as if it was obvious. “No, I haven’t!”

“Kid! Calm down!” Maka said over his voice, reaching for his hands that were flailing around dramatically in the air. She managed to calm him down but he still glared at her. Her nerves had left her long ago but despite this she still gulped.

“Tell me I’m not trash,” he said quietly once his body had finally stopped flailing around.

“What?”

“It’s what Liz and Patty say… my girls,” Kid explained, face softening at the thought of his partners.

“Of course you’re not trash,” Maka said, sympathy dripping through her voice. “Just because your handwriting isn’t the definition of perfection doesn’t mean you have sacrifice your grades for it. You’re supposed to take over the DWMA one day, remember? How’re you supposed to do that if you’re at the bottom of the class?”

“I’m not at the bottom.” Kid scoffed. “My expertise in the physical training aspect helps me immensely. It’s the written work that drags me down.” He looked down at the table at that, and Maka took a moment to stare at Kid. 

His outfit was perfectly symmetrical and unwrinkled. Everything about him was, frankly, except for the three stripes in his hair. She pouted. He must feel horrible about them. She couldn’t imagine having his state of mind, worrying about perfection to the point where it rendered herself unable to do daily things. 

Maka looked down at the table where all the studying supplies had been set up. The books were all in a neat pile, the paper in its own pile beside it, and pencils carefully placed in an orderly row. With a smirk, she looked over at Death the Kid and shrugged. 

“Well, since we’ve gotten to the root of the problem, we won’t be needing these anymore.” Then, as carelessly as she could manage, she swiped her arm across the entirety of the table, knocking over the books and pencils while paper flew everywhere. 

Kid nearly screamed and rushed to pick everything up and put it back in place. Maka was surprised at how quick he was to sort all the supplies until it was exactly the way it was before whilst whining about how she had ruined the perfect display. 

“How could you, Maka? It was stunning! It was perfect-! Although…” Kid looked back at the fixed materials, studying them. “This could be a bit more symmetrical.”

Maka watched as Kid split up the books into two even piles and same with the papers and pencils. Soon both sides of the table had a similar looking display of supplies. The perfection of it all was almost captivating. 

“Quick, Maka, do you have a ruler or tape measure?” Kid asked and Maka snapped out of her trance and rolled her eyes.

“Kid, do you even realize what you’re doing?”

“Making the world a bit more perfect of course,” Kid said proudly. “It’s the least I can do.”

“Yeah, but at what cost?”

“Nothing is more important than symmetry. It stands for balance, and without balance there is no meaning in our universe,” Kid said, the words rolling off his tongue easily as if he had said them hundreds of times before. Maybe he had. 

Hastily, Maka grabbed a pencil from one of the two piles and a paper, shushing Kid before he could whine and complain. 

“Just watch,” she ordered. With that, she began to write her name and then leaned back when she was done.

“What’s that say?”

“‘Maka Albarn,’” Kid read.

“See? My handwriting is eligible but it’s not perfect nor is it sloppy, right?” Maka said.

“I… I suppose.”

“And I only took a few seconds to write it, if that.” Maka took another moment to write her name again. “You think you got it?”

Kid didn’t answer, instead taking the pencil to his own hand and grabbing the paper. He steadily began to write the ‘D’, but the amount of time it took him to scratch down the line in the letter was about as long as it took Maka to write her full name altogether.

Before he could start on the curve, she told him, “Now go a little faster.”

“B-but it’s already so hideous,” Death the Kid muttered. 

“No it’s not,” Maka said as he finished off the curve. “Look at it! You can tell it’s a ‘D’ can’t you?”

“Agh! But that’s not the point!” Kid threw the pencil down with rage. “Just because it’s eligible doesn’t mean it’s perfect! Horrible, disgusting-“

“Hey, hey!” Maka took the pencil back into her hand. “It’s not that big of a deal!”

“Yes it is, yes it is! How could you say it’s not?!”

“Because, Kid, in the grand scheme of things is a little, imperfect ‘D’ really such a terrible thing?”

“Yes! A poorly done ‘D’ leads to the whole name being imperfect! Then my handwriting will be forever deemed disgusting! And then—before you know it—my reputation is ruined!” Kid fell to the floor in the middle of his rant. 

Maka took a moment to look between Kid and the books. “I never thought I’d have to do this to you of all people, but-“ Without further warning, Maka took one of the books and slammed it on top of Death the Kid’s head. “-MAKA CHOP!”

Kid stopped yelling, but otherwise looked unphased. Maka supposed being a Grim Reaper has its advantages in the endurance department, but now wasn’t the time to think about that. 

A moment of quiet stretched between the two before Kid got off the floor and slid back onto the couch beside his tutor. There was some kind of grim shift in the air that was silencing the chaos that the two were plunged into just moments before. 

Maka broke the awkwardness when she looked at Kid. “You’re going to drive yourself crazy, you know.”

“Yeah? Why should you care?” Kid’s voice had reached the deep growl he wore when he was especially pissed off, but Maka had heard it too many times to be scared of it.

“Because we’re friends,” Maka said, determination clear in her voice. “And I’m your tutor, and right now I’m supposed to be teaching you how to bring your grades up, which involves you learning to write your name without worrying if its the tadist bit sloppy or not.”

“I just can’t do that, though,” Kid said through clenched teeth. “If there is an error I must correct it-”

“But there is none! Don’t you see-?”

“No, I can’t see!” Kid’s volume was picking up again. “Everytime I sense imperfectness I must fix it! I hear voices, Maka, and they’re constantly reminding me of what disgusting, asymmetrical garbage I am thanks to my hair and that I have to make it up to the world in anyway I can! That’s just the way things are! It is my duty as a Grim Reaper and-” Kid stopped when he saw Maka’s large frown and pitiful eyes. “What? What’s wrong-?”

He was interrupted when Maka threw her arms around him and squeezed him in a tight embrace. Death the Kid fell silent and after a moment hugged her back. “Is that really what you think? That you owe the world something for something you can’t control?”

“Of course-”

“Death the Kid,” Maka said, leaning back and looking at him in a way that was both strangely harsh and soft simultaneously. “You are fine just the way you are. I befriended you because I like you for who you are. And I’m not saying your… liking for symmetry is bad, but I’m also not saying that we should ignore it if it’s a serious problem.”

“It’s not-“

“If it’s failing you then, yes, it is,” Maka said affirmatively. “And as your tutor I say the first step to recovery is acceptance. I’m going to work you through this in a way that shows you your problem doesn’t define you, but it should be treated.”

“That’s a therapist not a tutor,” Kid said matter-of-factly. “And I don’t need a therapist.”

“Think about it, do you ever see me or Soul running around trying to fix everything that isn’t symmetrical?”

“Well, no, but-“

“Are we always perfectly symmetrical?”

“No, but you can-“

“Kid, what… what do Liz and Patty think about this?” Maka said.

Kid looked down at his hands, picking at a black polished nail, no doubt done by Liz. “They think it’s beginning to be a problem too,” he admitted quietly.

“Right. So if not for me than can you at least do it for them?” Maka knew Kid’s relationship with both his weapons was fairly new but so was hers and Soul’s. She knew he cared about them more than anything else. They were in the same shoes.

Kid said nothing and Maka let out a heavy sigh and grabbed the pencil again. “The truth is nothing is perfect,” Maka said eventually. “Not handwriting, not myself—“ She paused to point the tip of her pencil at Kid. “—and not even you.” 

Before her friend could take any sort of offense to that, she continued, “But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Mistakes are just apart of life. That’s just the way things are. And if everything were perfect, where would we have any room to improve? We have to improve somewhere along the lines, otherwise there wouldn’t be any point, would there?” Her last question didn’t sound rhetorical but still Kid offered no answer, just took a deep breath in from his nose. 

“I’m not telling you not to try to perfect yourself and the world around you but just- cut yourself some slack, okay? And if you’re ever feeling uncomfortable you can talk to me,” Maka added, and with that it seemed her great speech had ended. Kid finally lifted his head to stare at her and after a moment of hesitation, he gave her a small, shaky nod.

Maka smiled at that. “So let’s start over,” she ordered, handing him the pencil. “Try writing your name again.”

Kid did as he was told, carefully placing down a ‘D’ and then throwing the pencil back to Maka. “Take it before I erase it! I can’t stand to look at such a vile creation!” Kid threw an arm over his eyes for emphasis, shielding his vision and Maka shook her head.

“It looks great, Kid!” Maka assured him. “Get your arm off your eyes and look!”

Hesitantly, Death the Kid obeyed and forced himself to look down at the letter. It was horribly imperfect. The curve was leaning a bit too much to the left and the line wasn’t parallel to the sides of the paper. “I feel sick,” he commented.

“Don’t! See, it’s not perfectly symmetrical but it still has character! I love it!” Maka cheered. 

“You- you do?” Kid whimpered.

“Yeah! It’s nice, it’s flowy, and way better than Soul’s,” Maka whispered the last one then laughed, and Kid joined in with a couple chuckles. “I can barely read his, but thanks to me he’s still a B student.”

Kid smiled a bit at that. “So… I did good then?”

“You did good, Kid,” Maka said. “I think that’s enough progress for today.”

Kid hummed before saying, “Thank you, Maka. I don’t usually accept help from my companions in this… department of myself, but-“

“Shh. You’re welcome,” Maka said. “And I don’t mind one bit.” She looked down at her watch with a frown. “It’s already 9:07, though, so you better get going. I don’t want Liz and Patty to get worried.”

“Agreed,” Kid said and soon he was outside the door and exchanging goodbyes with Maka. When he was gone Maka came back to find Soul in the kitchen, chugging down some milk.

He saw her and wiped his mouth on his sleeve with a playful smile. “So… how’d it go?”

“Not that bad. Better than I thought it would-“ Maka said but paused as she saw the painting on the wall to her right that had been slightly tilted was now standing perfectly straight. “But I think we still have some work to do.”

Soul smiled and kissed her softly, and she giggled and kissed back. Something told her this wasn’t going to be the last time tutoring Death the Kid.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading, lovely✨
> 
> tumblr: @rosesandstuff


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